Five Fives
by Nezuko
Summary: Lists of Five, on various themes, about Shiranui Genma and his comrades.
1. Five Bedtimes

**Five Fives**

**Five Bedtimes**

_by Nezuko, Prince of Rats_

_This is a work of derivative fiction based on the manga "Naruto" by Kishimoto Masashi. The characters and the world in which they live are the property of Kishimoto-sensei._

_AN: These were done as part of the "List of Five" meme._

**Five Bedtimes:**_ Five times Genma has fallen asleep with Raidou_

• Their friendship started the night when Genma was having nightmares and Raidou barged in to find out why the hell his neighbor was screaming bloody murder and had every light blazing at 2:00 AM. Raidou threw a flashlight at Genma and Genma threatened Raidou with poisoned senbon. It ended with Raidou singing a lullaby as Genma feel asleep.

• The number of missions they've "slept together" on is nearly uncountable. One memorable one involved suddenly plunging temperatures and inadequate blankets, and huddling together for warmth.

• Genma slept in Raidou's apartment the night before Raidou left for the mission he almost didn't come back from. Genma didn't want him to go. He had a bad feeling about it, he said.

• In retrospect, they really shouldn't have bothered trying to go to the movie when they were both so tired. But they'd just finished their mission, and the town they were in for the night had a theatre that was showing a classic film that Raidou insisted Genma had to see. They woke up when the cleaning staff turned on the overhead lights.

• When they were in the hospital after their mission to Heigen, Genma and Raidou both slept a lot. The best thing in the world, though, was waking up and being able to look over and see the pale, bruised face of your best friend sleeping serenely on a clean, white pillow case.

* * *

_The "history" here is based on Genma as I play him in Scarlet Spiral, an RPG set in ANBU nine years before the start of the manga. The missions, events, and characters referred to here can be seen there. I encourage you to check it out. There's a link in my Author Profile._


	2. Five Needles

**Five Fives**

**Five Needles**

_by Nezuko, Prince of Rats_

_This is a work of derivative fiction based on the manga "Naruto" by Kishimoto Masashi. The characters and the world in which they live are the property of Kishimoto-sensei._

_AN: These were done as part of the "List of Five" meme._

_**Five Needles: **Five things Genma has done with his senbon knowing full well that it was unacceptable or pervy_

• If there was one cardinal rule for a ninja, it was "do not run with a weapon in your mouth." Genma broke it for the first time without thinking about it. He had the needle in his mouth because he needed his hands to climb the side of the building and get the hell out of there. After that, though, and forever after, he held that senbon between his teeth on purpose.

• The man was watching. Genma could tell. He could see how the piggish little eyes twitched back and forth with every twitch of the needle. Genma winked and smirked and bobbled the senbon up and down, and while the guard's eyes were on the slender tool, Genma's hands were busily helping themselves to precious artifacts the old pervert had been supposed to be guarding.

• The yakuza boys were being damn noisy, and Genma was tired. It had been a long mission, and he really didn't want to listen to a bunch of cut-rate thugs boast about their kills. In retrospect, though, he probably shouldn't have wasted the needles. Knockout drops in their drinks would have been just as effective, and less likely to have started a brawl.

• The girl behind the counter was cute and dressed in a way that said, _I will if you ask nicely enough._ She was selling glazed fruit, and Genma was buying. He leaned over the glass and used a senbon to spear one of the glistening cherries, then brought it to his mouth, licking the syrup off before sucking the treat into pouting lips.

"Nice cherries," he said. "I like 'em wet and sweet and dripping like this."

• The medic handed Genma the senbon after he extracted it, applying pressure and chakra to the profusely bleeding wound the needle left behind. Genma watched interestedly, not feeling anything, because whatever the medic was doing to stop the bleeding was also making his leg numb. He stuck the needle in his mouth, tasting blood on the metal.

"What the hell are you doing?" the medic demanded. "Do you have any idea where that thing's been?"

"Yep," Genma said. "In my thigh."

* * *

_With a tip of the pen to iamzuul for her awesome story Ingress, which inspired the fifth point. Look it up in my Favorites list_


	3. Five Regrets

**Five Fives**

**Five Regrets**

_by Nezuko, Prince of Rats_

_This is a work of derivative fiction based on the manga "Naruto" by Kishimoto Masashi. The characters and the world in which they live are the property of Kishimoto-sensei._

_AN: These were done as part of the "List of Five" meme._

**Five Regrets: **_Five things Genma would do differently if he could have._

• It's hard to pick the key moment that would have changed everything. Genma thinks maybe it was when he chose to block with his kunai rather than dodge. But maybe it was when he chose not to carry a katana on that mission. Or maybe it was when he let Raidou talk him into taking rear guard when he usually took point. In any event, if he could change it, he'd go back to that mission and he wouldn't have gotten his arm skewered. Then he wouldn't have been out on a medical when Raidou took that mission with Takeshi, and he'd have gone in the rookie's place. Then maybe Takeshi would still be bugging him for dating advice, and Raidou wouldn't look ten times in the mirror every night at a face he could no longer stand.

• Another hard call is whether there would have been anything Genma could have done to prevent Seijuro's death. He knows that when he flipped that interrogator off, it sealed his fate, so maybe that was the moment. If only the other ANBU team had arrived just ten minutes sooner, then the only ones dead would have been the Stone ninja. But they hadn't, and the interrogator had broken another one of Genma's fingers and demanded that he choose: Seijuro, his friend and comrade, or Taisei, a crazy kid he'd only known for two days--which should she kill? And Genma had refused to choose.

But he doesn't think he could live with himself if he had.

• The day Genma's sisters, Yumiko and Haruko, died, had started like any other. He'd spent the night at home that night, because Haruko had begged him and he couldn't refuse her. So that morning he was dressed in ANBU gear, and Yumiko had given him a baleful look and made some cutting remark. And they'd fought. Genma can't even remember what about. But he knows the last thing his older sister said to him was, "I don't want to be the medic that does your autopsy when you get your idiot self killed." And Genma's last words to her had been, "Hah, that's a laugh, I'll outlive you!"

Every time he lights incense for Yumiko now, he tells her, "I'm sorry, oneesan, I didn't mean for it to be true."

• That day holds more than one regret for Genma. It holds more than one regret for most people in Konoha, so in that he's not alone. But one more thing he wishes he'd done differently is this: When the alarm sounded and the demon Fox was near, Genma wishes he'd broken ranks and run home, or gotten someone to do it for him, and made sure Haruko got moved to a safe buker. She must have been terrified, he thinks, alone in the house and unable to run to safety because of her crippled legs. He can only hope that the fire that burned her to ash and bone was so swift and hot she never had time to feel it.

• Genma's freshest regret is Heigen. He's gone over that mission so many times he gets sick just thinking about it, but he still comes back to the same point: When he and Raidou and Ono were in that grungy little hotel room together, planning their assault on Heigen's daimyou's castle, he should have paid more attention to Ono's jitters. He should have pressed the kid to find out what was wrong, and not just assumed it was mission nerves. He should have noticed it was worse than that, and he should have forced that traitorous little bastard to spill it _before_ he went off onto that deathtrap Ono had set up for him and Raidou.

Maybe, he thinks, if he'd somehow gotten Ono to confess, they could have saved him and his son, somehow. Or maybe he and Raidou would have killed Ono for his betrayal. Either way, if they'd known it was a trap, they'd never have gone in.

Genma was mission leader at Heigen. So it all comes down to this: If he'd done his job properly and recognized Ono's treachery, then Raidou and he wouldn't have gotten hurt. And his nightmares about Taisei and interrogators and splintering bones in his hands wouldn't have Raidou in them now, too.

* * *

_The "history" here is based on Genma as I play him in Scarlet Spiral, an RPG set in ANBU nine years before the start of the manga. The missions and characters referred to here can be seen there. I encourage you to check it out. There's a link in my Author Profile._


	4. Five Long Waits

**Five Fives**

**Five Long Waits**

_by Nezuko, Prince of Rats_

_This is a work of derivative fiction based on the manga "Naruto" by Kishimoto Masashi. The characters and the world in which they live are the property of Kishimoto-sensei._

_AN: These were done as part of the "List of Five" meme._

**Five Long Waits: **_Five times Genma's waited for Raidou._

• The worst wait, and the longest, was the three days Genma waited for them to let him in to see Raidou after he was brought back to Konoha missing half his face. He waited in a waiting room, dirty and unshaven, refusing to eat or sleep or do anything at all other than try to get into that antiseptic little room and see that his friend really was alive.

• Close on that wait's heels were the two weeks Genma waited for Raidou to wake up. He waited by Raidou's bedside, holding his cold, still hand, and humming _Ninja's Passing_ under his breath. Genma refused two mission assignments before the planers at HQ wised up and decided not to assign him anything else while Raidou was unconscious.

• The first time Genma persuaded Raidou to go out clubbing after Raidou recovered, Genma waited forty-five minutes while Raidou checked the mirror, changed his shirt, checked the mirror, fussed with his hair, checked the mirror...

"Come on, you look good," Genma told him. "If we stay here much longer with a bed so close by, I might have to jump your bones and roll you before we ever get out the door."

Raidou ended that wait with a fist. Genma just grinned.

• Genma lay utterly still, subdued almost to the point of catatonia, and waited for Raidou to finish. To finish yelling at him for having gotten himself into this situation. To finish cleaning the gore out of his ripped open shoulder. To finish stitching the wound closed. To finish winding the bandages around it.

When Raidou gave Genma one more exasperated snarl, then pulled him into a tight hug and told him, "Idiot, you should have dodged," Genma was glad he'd waited.

• Genma's still waiting for Raidou. He waits for him to come back from missions (when they don't take them together). He waits for him to decide to leave ANBU. He waits (without much hope) for him to realize that gender isn't nearly as important as he thinks it is. And if it comes right down to it, Genma intends to wait forever.

Some things are worth waiting for.


End file.
